Can we learn from manufacturing?
Posted by andy in : Agile, Learning on March 11, 2004There is lots of talk in the Agile community of the parallels with Manufacturing.
Mary Poppendieck (Lean Software Development) points out that development is an exercise in discovery, while production is an exercise in reducing variation, and for this reason a lean approach to development results in practices that are quite different than lean production practices.
That’s not to say that we cannot learn from Manufacturing - certainly the drive to reduce waste (muda as its called in Lean Thinking). reducing batch sizes and focusing on quality are equally applicable to software. I just liked Mary’s overview.
Oh well, back to the book…
